Foreign investors operating in the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) have agreed to offer premium wages beginning at RM3,500 for local hires.

Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi announced that the arrangement was finalised after a series of discussions led by the Johor branch of the Malaysian Investment Facilitation Centre and the Johor Talent Development Council.

“One of the key matters discussed was the need to set a minimum salary of RM3,500 and above for diploma holders, while degree holders should be offered at least RM4,000. Alhamdulillah, I am pleased to report that the majority of investors choosing to invest in Johor have agreed to this proposal,” he added, speaking during the Johor State Legislative Assembly sitting in Kota Iskandar.

The Menteri Besar was responding to a question from Datuk Zulkarnain Kamisan (BN–Sri Medan), who had inquired about the state government’s expectations for foreign investors in terms of hiring local workers and offering salaries that are competitive with those across the border in Singapore.

Onn Hafiz, who also serves as the Machap assemblyman, explained that investors have outlined two main conditions: productivity and technical skills among workers must correspond with the salary levels agreed upon.

Touching on the employment of Malaysians, he said that national policy, as set by the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, requires the manufacturing sector to maintain a workforce composition of 80 per cent locals and 20 per cent foreign workers.

He also revealed that a Chinese company, in a meeting held the previous day, disclosed that it had already committed RM500 million in its initial investment phase in Johor, with plans to scale this up to RM3 billion over multiple future phases.

“The Chinese investor has expressed a strong commitment to hiring skilled local talent and has also agreed to establish a Research and Development centre in collaboration with Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia,” he said.

“This is part of the Johor government’s continued efforts to ensure that economic development directly benefits the people, particularly by creating high-income job opportunities for local talent,” he added.

(Source: Malay Mail)

• TAGS:
• Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi
• Investment
• Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone
• JS-SEZ
• Local Hires
• Premium Wages
• Wages